How does a tiny scrap of paper with a simple shape scribbled on it sell for over $200,000?

When it belongs to the Italian Renaissance Master, Michelangelo, the sky is the limit. Michelangelo’s sketch of a marble block reads “simile.” Photos courtesy of Christie’s. A sketch by Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps of all time, recently sold for $201,600. It was offered by Christie’s New York in its […]

Out of the Kitchen, Into the Louvre

In 2019, a nonagenarian woman in Compiègne, France, took the art world by storm when a routine house clearing revealed that what she thought was a Greek religious icon hanging in her kitchen was actually a medieval masterpiece. Cimabue, The Mocking of Christ. Photo courtesy ACTEON Senlis. The 10-by-8-inch painting on a wood panel proved […]